Affliction: Constantly casting DoTs or am I missing something?

Going to be leveling my Warlock to 90 this week to fill a raid spot in my guild, wanting to go Affliction.

Question though from what I have found, and been reading on forums and trying out at 85 in game...

ALL I do is recast my DoTs over and over... I use Soul Burn to apply at start, then Haunt then MG but it seems like every 5 seconds I am having to re-apply DoTs. Now if I only use Soul Burn to do it I run empty on Shards in no time, but if I hard cast them I literally spend 100% of my time re-applying DoTs in between Haunts with almost 0 time to MG...

You should not need to chain cast dots on single target. While leveling, very few normal mobs will live through the duration of a single application of dots + malefic grasp casts. Your shortest dot (UA) might be falling off when the mob is near death, but there is no real reason to recast the dot. Make sure you drain soul when the mob is below 20% to get back a full stack of soul shards.

If you are doing dungeons, keep it mind it's a very different playstyle below level 90 as you don't have Pandemic. Once you get the skill, you will find your rotation smoothing out a lot.

are you using a dot timer? because unless you have like 300% haste you are highly exaggerating

I'm not exaggerating... I just tried it out on a dummy.

I put up DoTs with Soul Burn, I cast Haunt and do 2xMG at which point I have to Haunt again right after that I have to UA followed by a quick Corr then I get maybe 1 MG if I am lucky before I have to CoA and then start the whole mashie mess over again...

I put up DoTs with Soul Burn, I cast Haunt and do 2xMG at which point I have to Haunt again right after that I have to UA followed by a quick Corr then I get maybe 1 MG if I am lucky before I have to CoA and then start the whole mashie mess over again...

what you are describing is called a "rotation" you know, what dps classes do.

My channel: Shirgadirth I used to do let's play's but now I do reviews, but not very often. Far too busy from school. Also too poor to buy games :P

I put up DoTs with Soul Burn, I cast Haunt and do 2xMG at which point I have to Haunt again right after that I have to UA followed by a quick Corr then I get maybe 1 MG if I am lucky before I have to CoA and then start the whole mashie mess over again...

Affliction is a dot spec. This is a rotation. Affliction is easier than ever to play. You have to consider that affliction might not be your cup of tea. And you aren't constantly refreshing dots. Because I'm fully raid geared and I'm not constantly refreshing dots. if that were the case, GoSac would be shit for us. But it's not. You have to consider that you might not like tracking dots. And if that's the case, locks probably aren't for you. Especially affliction. And if that's the case, play another class. A lock isn't a necessity anymore with Demonic Pact gone. Don't just play a class you don't enjoy because your raid "needs" one. Have your raid recruit one. There are tons of locks around now with people flocking to the class for all the changes and the new class quest and whatnot. Play what you like. And I doubt by what you're saying you're going to enjoy playing a lock.

I put up DoTs with Soul Burn, I cast Haunt and do 2xMG at which point I have to Haunt again right after that I have to UA followed by a quick Corr then I get maybe 1 MG if I am lucky before I have to CoA and then start the whole mashie mess over again...

Would you rather have dots that lasted 5 minutes and sit there MGing for the duration? I'm not sure whether you blackout for short periods, but my experience is far from what you describe. Affliction is in a great place ATM (in PVE :E) and from what I gather, most people are enjoying it just as much as I am. Perhaps a different play style would suit you better, Destro and Demo offer a completely different experience and if played well can tend to keep up with Affli.

It's called a rotation. You spend roughly 30% of your time hard casting dots, unless you have an excess amount of soul shards from mass adds with SB:SoC, sub-20% drain soul, or have an incredibly lucky streak of nightfall procs, in which case you would save a few GCDs with SB:SS.

You're either over-exaggerating or playing the rotation completely wrong if the only thing you are doing is hard-casting dots.

Also, you dont just cast Haunt whenever possible, only during burn phases, proccs or when you would cap on Shards otherwise. And like already mentioned, if you are not 90 yet, you certainly will have to renew your DoTs more often, because at 90 you gain a passive skill, which makes that much more comfortable.

I strongly recommend reading an Affliction Guide and even watching some Videos from an Affliction PoV, so you can see for yourself if that is a specc/class you would like to play or not.

Oh and vaeevictiss, love your sig
Never liked or even understood why people would play Destruction, when you have Demo or the iconic Warlock specc Affliction ^^

Also, you dont just cast Haunt whenever possible, only during burn phases, proccs or when you would cap on Shards otherwise. And like already mentioned, if you are not 90 yet, you certainly will have to renew your DoTs more often, because at 90 you gain a passive skill, which makes that much more comfortable.

I strongly recommend reading an Affliction Guide and even watching some Videos from an Affliction PoV, so you can see for yourself if that is a specc/class you would like to play or not.

Oh and vaeevictiss, love your sig
Never liked or even understood why people would play Destruction, when you have Demo or the iconic Warlock specc Affliction ^^

this is pretty much spot on, you're better off watching some affliction guides, evrelia has made some very good ones. i just want to clearify that what Comburo meant when he/she simply wrote "procs" is when you have dots on a target that was casted while having one or more procs up like jade spirit or relic.

it sounds to me that what you really need is some proper dot tracking addons like fortexorcist(think thats how its spelled) affdots tidyplates(not actually a dot tracker but can help you keep track on dots on each target as opposed to the forte addon which makes a long list of dots on each target) and various versions of dot timers(the elvui standard, fortexorcist etc.).

A. Rude and Un-Helpful used to be a Hunter trademark, glad to see where they all migrated to. Gotta love all that misplaced rage...

B. Maybe I missed something but someone up there said to only use Haunt during "burn phases, procs or when you would cap on Shards" because back in Cata it was an on-cooldown spell. Also back in Cata I used to be able to SB like 3-4 times in between having to refresh DoTs.

All I was saying is the last time I played I spent a lot more time on filler waiting for the right time to refresh, this time it felt like there was next to no time for filler.

It sounds like you just baited a couple people into replying with a hyperbolic post, and now you're backtracking and playing the victim. They helped you. Say "thanks" to the ones who replied with information and ignore the others.

Personally I dislike the new affliction, as powerful as it is, and raid Demo/Destro to great effect. Hell, destro is mostly filler, so you may find that more to your liking.

A. Rude and Un-Helpful used to be a Hunter trademark, glad to see where they all migrated to. Gotta love all that misplaced rage...

B. Maybe I missed something but someone up there said to only use Haunt during "burn phases, procs or when you would cap on Shards" because back in Cata it was an on-cooldown spell. Also back in Cata I used to be able to SB like 3-4 times in between having to refresh DoTs.

All I was saying is the last time I played I spent a lot more time on filler waiting for the right time to refresh, this time it felt like there was next to no time for filler.

Yeesh.

This thread has already been too helpful for you if you ask me. Your posts are also rude but in a passive ignorant way.

A. Rude and Un-Helpful used to be a Hunter trademark, glad to see where they all migrated to. Gotta love all that misplaced rage...

B. Maybe I missed something but someone up there said to only use Haunt during "burn phases, procs or when you would cap on Shards" because back in Cata it was an on-cooldown spell. Also back in Cata I used to be able to SB like 3-4 times in between having to refresh DoTs.

All I was saying is the last time I played I spent a lot more time on filler waiting for the right time to refresh, this time it felt like there was next to no time for filler.

Yeesh.

And in Cataclysm Haunt wasn't tied to soul shards. And it was only able to be on one target at a time. The poster was correct. You only use it on int procs, Burn phases, and when you are capped on shards. Haunt is for burst now. And the last time you played affliction you had to spam shadow bolt as your filler. And Corruption was refreshed by Haunt, and UA refreshed by DS.

And you trying to pin a "trademark" on certain classes is totally off. There are rude people that play all classes. There are nice, helpful people in all of the classes. Your perception isn't the truth. You came to a lock forum complaining about the gameplay style of a spec you want to play. So why switch to it then?